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Children in the state's welfare system are being warehoused in psychiatric hospitals and emergency shelters hundreds of days longer than they should be in many cases because the agency does not have a place for them, a new report found. The highly critical review of Illinois' Department of Children...

In an ambitious effort to repair Illinois' beleaguered child welfare system, state officials have laid out a wide-ranging reform plan that includes extensive worker retraining, expanded access to mental health services and a substantial reduction in the number of juvenile wards in residential treatment...

Illinois child welfare officials forfeited tens of millions of federal dollars in recent years by failing to process basic paperwork, state authorities told the Tribune this week. After a monthslong bureaucratic effort fixed the lapses, $21.5 million in new federal dollars flowed to the Department...

U.S. Reps. Danny Davis of Illinois and Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts urged federal health authorities to speed up their investigation of the nation's largest behavioral health provider, Universal Health Services.

State officials and child advocates have begun the difficult, deliberate work of revamping Illinois' child welfare system following reports late last year that young state wards were assaulted, raped and lured into prostitution at taxpayer-financed residential treatment facilities. Illinois' largest...

The Justice Department's criminal probe into Universal Health Services has entered a new and more serious phase, focusing on potential wrongdoing by the corporation as a whole and not just its individual facilities. Universal, the nation's largest behavioral health firm, had previously disclosed...

In the latest step aimed at reforming Illinois' troubled residential treatment centers, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to allow independent monitors inside the facilities to evaluate the safety of the youths living in them and determine whether their needs are being met. The move is part of...

At Rock River Academy, hours that were billed as "group therapy" for girls with troubled histories instead were spent watching movies in a common area, with no discussion afterward, according to a state monitoring report and interviews with former workers. Direct-care workers at the Rockford facility...

The incoming director of the Department of Children and Family Services says he got one clear message during his single meeting with his new boss, Gov. Bruce Rauner: "He knows that it's a problem agency," George Sheldon said in an interview Friday. "He seemed concerned and he also expressed a commitment...

The incoming director of the Department of Children and Family Services said Friday that he got one clear message during his single meeting with his new boss, Gov. Bruce Rauner: “He knows that it’s a problem agency,” said George Sheldon. “He seemed concerned and he also expressed a commitment to...

A month after Illinois pulled state wards out of Sadie Waterford Manor for their own safety, the residential treatment center is lobbying officials to reopen in a new location, the Tribune has learned. The Crestwood center had nearly 2,000 police service calls in 2013, including 994 runaway reports,...

A prominent but troubled residential facility for youths is closing following Tribune reports that children inside the Rockford center were assaulted and lured into prostitution. The 59-bed, all-girls Rock River Academy issued a statement Wednesday saying it was forced to shut down after the state...